‘Israel never talked me into the war with Iran,’ Trump says

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/20/israel-never-talked-me-into-the-war-with-iran-trump-says

United States President Donald Trump has denied being dragged into war with Iran by Israel as he faces increasing criticism over the conflict, including from segments of his own base.

249 points · 69 comments · view on lemmy.world

69 Comments

Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca · 96 pts · 130d (7 replies)

No, they blackmailed him.

Keeponstalin@lemmy.world · 33 pts · 130d
Malyca@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 130d (1 reply)

My money is on bribery because it's the only thing he consistently responds to

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 130d

They dangle bait, but not hard cash, more promises of real-estate opportunities on the rubble of Gaza.

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 130d

They probably didn't even need to, he's so easily manipulated. "Look! Airplane! And I like your idea of attacking Iran!"

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 130d

epstein file talked him into the war to distract the news.

Samskara@sh.itjust.works · -2 pts · 130d (1 reply)

In Trump‘s first term and this term as well, he had The Who is Who of „Bomb Iran“ in his cabinet. Trump also has talked negatively about Iran for decades.

Trump just needed an opportunity.

Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 130d

Who said it was new?

ryper@lemmy.ca · 59 pts · 130d (6 replies)

Obviously Israel talked him into the war and told him to deny it.

givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 130d (5 replies)

Worse.

They talked him into a war and it's obvious to everyone except trump and maybe Joe Biden.

I think they both legitimately still see Israel as "the good guys", because their brains are mush.

MyRobotShitsBolts@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 130d (1 reply)

Also they have all the hard copies of the Epstine files and he's just dancing for them to keep them hidden.

givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 130d

They do, but that's not it.

He's letting Kushner handle everything with Israel, it all flows thru him like Cheney had everything run thru him with GW.

Kushner is a zionist, he wants what Bibi wants.

So instead of America negotiating with Israel, Bibi tells Kushner what he wants, and Kushner frames it as the best and only option to trump, usually with Ivanka greasing the wheels.

Just like Cheney told GW the Irag war was the only possible option, Kushner says anything Bibi wants is the only possible option.

I legitimately wouldn't be surprised to find out they've been diverting food from US naval ships to send to Israel at this point.

bedwyr@piefed.ca · -3 pts · 130d (2 replies)

Good and evil don't play into it, they believe in nothing, only self-interest.

givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 130d

they believe in nothing, only self-interest.

The fuck you think "evil" is?

Edit to clarify:

"Evil" like exists in media isn't real, it's propaganda from the people in power to convince you they're the good guys and they overcame "evil" so we're better off with them than without.

It's an excuse to give them too much power. And it's such a good excuse that people in power will manufacture terrible situations to just that "evil" is a natural phenomona on a large scale. And they're never put good effort into any type of peace. They want/need perpetual lie to keep people scared enough they'd turn over all their own wealth and actual security.

That's the most evil shit in the real weird, and there's so much of it we don't need to worry about boogeymen.

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 130d

That sounds evil to me.

daychilde@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 130d

Trump: Israel didn't talk me into it!

…soooooo Israel talked him into it.

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 29 pts · 130d (3 replies)

Translation: Netanyahu talked Trump into it, but Trump was too stupid to know he'd been played.

Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 10 pts · 129d (2 replies)

In all fairness, "This is false, Trump is lying" is by far the most likely thing when he says anything that makes him look better (or at least less bad).

IMHO the most likely scenarion is that Trump was played by Netanyahu, later figured it out or was told that he had been played and now is lying about not having been played in the first place.

Doorbook@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 129d (1 reply)

Why assuming he was played? The action the administration took to make this happen was too extreme to say "he was played"

The money all the rich made with market manipulation doesn't indicate he was played.

Everything point at him and his groups to be actively benefiting from this situation.

Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 129d

He's a psychologically sick guy with a profound Narcisist complex whose constantly harping about how he's great at everything.

People who believe themselves better than everybody else and hence would never fall for a scam are some of the best marks around for scammers.

So it seems like a reasonable explanation that he got swindled into doing something which superficially looked like a win - especially in light of the recent similar "win" in Venezuela - but had secondary effects which turned it into a defeat.

Mind you, I'm not "assuming" jack shit, I'm just putting forward what I think is a likely explanation.

Malyca@lemmy.zip · 26 pts · 130d

The man is so simple I almost feel bad for him. Then I remember what he's done.

random_character_a@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 130d (2 replies)

So it was not about alliances? You just started a war unilaterally, because you had a bad day.

This guy is begging to be impeached.

kreskin@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 130d

Israel wouldn't want him impeached, so Schumer will never let impeachment happen.

TotallynotJessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 130d

He could nuke Iran, kidnap refugees, and personally execute them on live television without getting impeached. There is no mechanism to really threaten him.

TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 18 pts · 130d (1 reply)

Trump is so easy to manipulate, and he doesn't even realize it.

GameOverFlow@lemmy.zip · 12 pts · 130d

That is the reason it is so easy

melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 17 pts · 129d

No. They manipulated him into it. Trump is rather thick after all and easily sells his love and trust for shiny trinkets.

CyroSignal@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 130d (5 replies)

"American first" has become "Israel first"

guyoverthere123@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 129d

It always was.

yuknowhokat@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 129d (3 replies)

.. has become Trump first

capt_wolf@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 129d (1 reply)

It never wasn't.

yuknowhokat@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 126d

There was pretense that he was for America first. His actions have always shown different but this is really irrefutable.

CyroSignal@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 129d

It's true

Treczoks@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 130d

He probably has already forgotten that Netanyaho talked him into this.

xenomor@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 130d

“Look people, this incredibly bad, self-destructive, unpopular, and poorly planned operation was all my own creation. Don’t you dare hang any responsibility for this disaster on anyone else but me.”

samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 130d

Because they don't have to convince him of anything. They just give him his marching orders and he follows like a good boy.

AoxoMoxoA@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 130d

Cool story bro but your fucking lying

marcos@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 130d (5 replies)

Of course not. Trump has been crazy trying to find some war that can let him cancel this year's US elections since his attempt to phish a civil war failed last year.

Israel probably talked him into Iran in particular, though.

bedwyr@piefed.ca · 8 pts · 130d (4 replies)

They're rigging the elections not canceling them.

Typhoon@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 130d (3 replies)

Why not both?

floofloof@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 130d (2 replies)

Rigging an election you also cancel seems like a bit of a waste of effort.

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 130d

Belt and suspenders. Someone else than Trump is planning it, it's not half-assed enough to be straight from Trump.

Typhoon@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 130d

No because he can use the "we won anyway" argument when he gets called out.

realitista@lemmus.org · 10 pts · 130d

That's exactly what someone who Israel talked into starting a war would say.

LittleBorat3@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 129d

He is calling it a war, Donny you dropped some bombs on people and now it's the worst possible shit show it could have been.

The war with Iran ...pfffh

Huschke@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 130d (3 replies)

It must be exhausting to be Trump. Netanjahu calls you to do X, but then Putin calls you to do the opposite of X, so the Netanjahu calls you again and you do X again and the cycle continues...

ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 3 pts · 130d (1 reply)

In this case both called him to do it. Israel gets to steal some more land, Russia gets sanctions lifted and weakened US.

CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 129d

And all the oil tycoons get to increase their profits by 200%

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 129d

You can be sure that Putin and Netanyahu have some mutual interests and have worked out a plan to tag-team Pig Boy.

msage@programming.dev · 6 pts · 129d

"Trump says" well I don't care.

Jaysyn@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 129d

Israel told him to say that, obviously.

Vince@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 130d

It's inception, except they didn't need to go into his dreams, they probably only needed to mention it once in passing. "I heard the bestest Presidents go to war with Iran."

floofloof@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 130d (1 reply)

When has Trump ever realized he's being played?

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 130d

He's like a goose. Every day he wakes up and it's a whole new world.

WanderingThoughts@europe.pub · 4 pts · 130d (1 reply)

No, Israel went "What's wrong McFly? Chicken?" and Trump pressed the red button.

dogslayeggs@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 130d

I don't know, I kinda see Trump as Biff Tannen, not Israel.

sik0fewl@piefed.ca · 4 pts · 130d (1 reply)

Israel talked Trump into Iran war confirmed.

Samskara@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 130d

Netanyahu sold Trump on it. It’s not even a secret.

richardwallass@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 130d

If if say so, just trust the opposite.

avidamoeba@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 130d

Well now that's news!

/s

humanspiral@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 129d

Mossad Agent Epstein never gave Netanyahu any proof of my pedophile rapes, and all of the Zionist money funding my election to "finish the job" of genocide, helps me understand that everything bibi ever says is always true, and so no bibi didn't force me into war, only demonic Zionist supremacism as the truth, did. The dotard, is incapable of admitting that he failed to see through bibi lies that 5 previous presidents (1 of them him) had enough qualified advisers to not do stupid.

Butterphinger@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 129d

That doesn't make it better...

actually, lmao...

yuknowhokat@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 129d (1 reply)

So, what is the reason he invaded without any need?

jj4211@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 129d

I think Israel didn't bother to 'talk', they just Leeroy Jenkinsed it up and the military decided they had to ride or die with it...

daannii@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 130d

Trump says "I don't even know anyone named Izrali" .

switcheroo@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 130d (1 reply)

They didn't talk him into it, they ORDERED him. He's a moron who'll do anything a dictator tells him as long as they word it like he's the most specialist widdle piggy evah.

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 130d

He definitely has a subby thing going on with dictators.

ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 1 pts · 129d

"Israel? I don't even know where that is!"

gary215@thelemmy.club · 1 pts · 130d

So who talked you into it, Putin?

vga@sopuli.xyz · 0 pts · 130d
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